Another chance at the Lucerne Rowing World Cup

Athletes returned to the water to have a second chance of qualifying for the semifinals. The conditions remained calm and warm as the sun peeked through the clouds for the 20 repechage races.

Women’s Single Sculls (W1x)

Australia’s Pippa Savage is relatively new to rowing, but she has decided the single is her event. Today she made one step closer to qualifying for the Olympics by easily winning the first of four repechages. Savage will now go on to the semifinals at this regatta. She will then be attempting to qualify for Beijing at the last chance regatta in June. Also qualifying for the semifinal from this repechage was Annick De Decker of Belgium who had to push past South Africa to get the second qualifying spot.

Rumyana Neykova of Bulgaria is an Olympic medallist and World Champion. She finished second at the World Champs last year and today she is working her way through to the final by racing in repechage two. After overtaking Poland’s Julia Michalska, Neykova got out to a handy lead. Neykova and Michalska take the two qualifying positions well ahead of the rest of the field.

In repechage three, Great Britain’s second boat, Kristina Stiller, made her mark by leading the field by over a boat length. This fast first 1000 then began to take its toll and Sanne Beukers of the Netherlands was able to push past and finish first. Both Beukers and Stiller will go to the semifinal.

Sophie Balmary of France is a regular in the women’s single final and she put herself one step closer to another final by winning the fourth repechage. A bad start by Frida Svensson meant Sweden’s top single sculler had to play catch-up to qualify. By the half-way point Svensson had got herself into second and started to close the gap on Balmary. Balmary had enough of a lead to hold off Svensson. Both scullers go on to the semifinal.

Men’s Single Sculls (M1x)

Sjoerd Hamburger of the Netherlands has been plugging away at the senior level ever since he became a world under-23 champion three years ago. Today, in repechage one, Hamburger led from start to finish leaving the rest of the field to sort out amongst themselves who would be the second qualifier. Brazil’s Anderson Nocetti slipped into this role doing just enough to stay ahead of Estonia. Finishing right on the seven-minute mark, Hamburger goes on to the semifinal along with Nocetti in second. Also in this race, Marcel Hacker of Germany pulled out of the race after 300m. Nerves got the better of him after a technical difficulty and not feeling 100 per cent.

Switzerland’s Andre Vonarburg is used to coming down the course to the sound of cow bells. Today the bells to be heard all came from the farm cows opposite the rowing course. It must have helped Vonarburg as he left the starters hands at the head of the field and remained there. Germany’s second entry, Karsten Brodowski gave Vonarburg a run for his money for 1000m and then let the Swiss get away. Brodowski, under no threat in his second spot, chose not to sprint the finish. Vonarburg and Brodowski advance to the semifinal.

Santiago Fernandez of Argentina’s best result so far has been a fourth-place finish at the Athens Olympics. Since then he has hovered on the edge of the A final and today he raced to the semifinal through from repechage three. Fernandez did this by jumping out at the start and hanging on. Meanwhile, Ken Jurkowski of the United States, who has had a stint in his country’s top boat, the men’s eight, is back in the single. Jurkowski tried to hold on to Fernandez’s pace while holding off Belgium. A huge finishing sprint took Belgium’s Bart Poelvoorde to a 40 rating. Jurkowski held on. At the line Fernandez finishes in first and Jurkowski just scrapes through to the second and final qualifying spot in second.

Lassi Karonen of Sweden made sure that he would be in the semifinal by getting out to an early lead. The Swede had opened up a boat length lead with just 500m rowed with China’s Zheng Chen following in second. Chen just recently qualified for the Beijing Olympics when he won at the Asian qualification regatta last month. Chen showed he was a worthy qualifier today by hanging closely to Karonen. Karonen and Chen move on to the semifinal.

Women’s Pair (W2-)

One repechage, four boats, three semifinal qualifiers. The aim in this race was not to come last. At the start everyone was on the pace. By half-way Germany One had started to fall off the pace and there was barely anything in it between Great Britain, France and Germany Two. Coming into the final 500m France’s Inene Pascal-Pretre and Stephanie Dechand had gained the edge with Great Britain and Germany Two neck-and-neck. France finishes first, Great Britain’s Louisa Reeve and Olivia Whitlam take second and Kerstin Naumann and Katrin Reinert of Germany qualify for the semifinal from third.

Men’s Pair (M2-)

They may be Australia’s second boat, but Terrence Alfred and Karsten Forsterling give it their all whenever they race. Today they led the first of four repechages with Germany’s Philipp Naruhn and Florian Eichner following closely in second. The top two boats would qualify but both Germany and Australia were unrelenting. Coming into the final sprint the Germany and Australia were overlapping and a sprint to the line was on. Naruhn and Eichner took the rating to 36 with Alfred and Forsterling matching it at 37. Germany got the edge to finish first. Germany and Australia move on to the semifinal.

Repechage two featured regular A finalists Erwan Peron and Laurent Cadot of France in the lead. Behind them a tight tussle went on between Denmark and South Africa. South Africa’s combination of eight years changed this year with Donovan Cech being replaced by Shaun Keeling. The young Keeling has joined the very experienced Ramon Di Clemente and the two will be the Olympic boat and South Africa’s biggest hope for an Olympic medal in rowing. Shaking off Denmark, Di Clemente and Keeling moved on France to get within striking distance. France took their stroke rate to a 41 and got to the line first. South Africa qualify from second.

Great Britain took a flying start in repechage three but soon lost it to China’s second crew of Lin Wu and Shunyin Zhang with Ireland in hot pursuit. Ireland are hoping to qualify this boat for the Olympics at the last chance in June and the boat has been strengthened by former Great Britain team member, Jonathan Devlin. Together with Sean Casey the Irish pressed the Chinese from their second place position. Meanwhile Great Britain Two had found their second wind and was winding into a huge finish. The British had left it just a few strokes too late. China and Ireland qualify for the semifinal.

Canada took an early lead in repechage four followed closely by Serbia’s Goran Jagar and Nikola Stojic. As the strength of the flying start began to slip away, Jagar and Stojic slipped into first. Then China One began to move. Jian Sun and Guangheng Zhang of China looked to be biding their time. Opening it up for the second half of the race, China was closing the gap on Serbia. In the final 500m Sun and Zhang wound it up to 40 strokes per minute. Serbia responded with 38, while both Canada and Great Britain charged at 39 strokes per minute. China crossed the line first and then Serbia. China and Serbia are the two qualifiers for the semifinal.

Women’s double sculls (W2x)

Four boats lined up, three would qualify. Belarus took off in the lead followed closely by lightweights, Sanna Sten and Minna Nieminen of Finland. By the half way point Sten and Nieminen had taken the lead off Belarus with Norway following in third. The race was all but over. For the final 500m it was nothing more than a procession; Finland in first, Belarus in second and Norway in third all qualify for the semifinal.

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls (LW2x)

Coming back to the water for the second time today these lightweights would have been doing all that they could to conserve energy in between. Berit Carow and Marie-Louise Draeger of Germany did a good job at this in repechage one. Carow and Draeger won gold at the first Rowing World Cup and after getting beaten this morning they were forced to come through the repechage. Leading at the start the Germans got out to a handy lead and kept an eye on the rest of the field. Cuba followed in second but soon found themselves under threat from the flying Danes. Denmark Two (Marie Gottlieb and Sine Christiansen) had overtaken Cuba and set their eyes on Germany. But Carow and Draeger had too much boat speed. Germany finish first, Denmark Two take second and Cuba hold on to the final qualifying spot, third.

In repechage two Great Britain’s Laura Greenhalgh and Helen Casey got out to a solid lead over France. This lead then extended out to a full boat length going through the middle of the race with Sweden’s Cecilia Lilja and Karin Hoegberg in second and New Zealand’s new combination of Candice Hammond and Louise Ayling in third. Coming into the final sprint Greenhalgh and Casey remained nicely in the lead while New Zealand and Sweden sprinted it out for second. New Zealand got there first. Great Britain, New Zealand and Sweden qualify for the semifinal.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x)

Poland’s Tomasz Kucharski and Robert Sycz have won the last two Olympic Games but then do very little in between the Olympics. They have yet to qualify for Beijing and today had to push their way forward by racing in the repechage. From the outside lane Kucharski and Sycz took the lead and did enough to remain there. With two semifinal positions up for grabs, Cuba and the Czech Republic were duking it out for the second place spot. This brought Cuba and the Czech’s within striking distance of the Poles. Poland held on, rating 35 through the final metres of the race. At the line Poland finish first, the Czech Republic take second and Cuba just misses out on qualifying in third.

They looked long in the water and smooth. At the head of repechage two, Sam Beltz and Thomas Gibson of Australia looked well in control, quite a contrast from their very pedestrian race this morning. This left reigning World Champions, Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist of Denmark to do what they could to hold on to second as only the top two would qualify. Austria put in a huge effort to get into the top two spots, but at the line Australia and Denmark are the qualifying boats.

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-)

One repechage required rowers to finish in the top three to earn a spot in the semifinal. After a close start the best three began to sort themselves out. Australia, stroked by Todd Skipworth, had the lead. Switzerland followed closely behind and Poland took up chase in third. Coming into the final sprint Australia, Switzerland and Poland gave it their all to get to the line first. Poland, rating 39, had the fastest sprint. But they had left it just a fraction too late. The order remained Australia first, Switzerland second and Poland third.